Pearl Harbor Day
by gotgoats
Summary: Gibbs and Tony deal with a difficult day, while remembering others who lost their lives decades before. CAUTION! This IS a death-fic, but we don't see any detail. It's simply stated that someone is no longer with the team.


Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own NCIS. If I did, Ziva would be back in Mossad, and McGee would be down in cybercrimes. If he was still alive, anyway. Lol

Author's note: This does contain the death of Ziva. Not details. I just ditched her, cuz, well, it felt like a good thing to do today.

Author's note: This is Pearl Harbor Day. If you haven't, please take a moment of silence to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful morning.

###################

December. It's a month full of history. For Christians, the birth of the Savior. For Jews, it's the celebration of Hanukah, which remembers the time during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, when the lamp in the temple remained burning for eight days, rather than the one the oil should have lasted for.

In more recent times, Washington crossed the Delaware. Gibbs smirked to himself as he contemplated how DiNozzo would insist that the December release of "Gone With the Wind" needed to be remembered in the important historical moments.

However, the day that stuck firmly in his mind at the moment was December 7th. He'd gotten to work a little early, as he always did. Outside the world rushed by, mostly free of the memory of that day. Yes, he'd not been there. But that day introduced a new chapter into the American battlefront.

That was the first time someone dared to attack our nation. Not long ago, it happened again. It seemed the wars were never-ending.

Within the walls of NCIS, thoughts turned to the lives of their brothers-in-arms lost so long ago. It was only 6 AM by DC time, and yet for the sailors on that day, their day was in full swing. A mini sub had been spotted by the minesweeper _Condor_ at only 3:42 AM. Gibbs wondered for a moment if the young captain of the US Destroyer Ward would have gone out in search of other ships had he known what the morning would hold for Hawaii.

Captain Outerbridge had only been on duty for two days when he ordered the attack and sinking of the submarine. He made sure to get the job done with several depth charges. If only that had prevented the destruction that would follow only hours later.

When the swarm of planes was picked up on radar, it was believed that they'd picked up a B-17 Flying Fortresses on the radar, and were told to not worry about it. Would the future have changed if the lieutenant had reported what he'd seen? Would someone have known that there was no flight planned for those planes that morning?

At a mere 7:30 AM, a telegraph is sent warning the president that the Japanese have stopped all talks, and that it may mean war. But the lines are staticy, and the message has to go through public means, and isn't delivered to Lt. Gen. Short until almost 3 in the afternoon. Would that have changed things?

Gibbs doesn't even know if thinking any of these things through can change anything. Ever. But perhaps they can learn from the past. Perhaps they can learn from the mistakes of yesteryear and ensure the safety of more troops, and more importantly, our nation.

Just before 8 AM Pacific time, the attack had begun.

Gibbs sighed as he started up his computer. It was only yesterday that the attack of their team took place. Perhaps one of them missed an important clue. But, just like it was too late to change that other fateful day, it was too late to change this one.

Ziva was gone, and there was no changing it. McGee was stable yet critical. How Tony had come out of that whole mess without a hair harmed on him was beyond the silver-haired leader. Usually Tony bore the brunt of anything that happened. Perhaps the kid's fortunes were changing.

The elevator dinged, and he watched Tony step from the elevator. He knew the younger man would be in early, but hadn't expected him this early.

"How ya doin'?" Gibbs stood and eyed his second in command critically.

"I'm alive, Boss." Tony nearly shrunk at his words.

"Get any sleep?"

"A bit." Tony shrugged. "Needed to get the reports written up." Gibbs nodded.

"If ya need anything, you know my door's open."

"Thanks, Boss." Tony sat and flipped on his computer. As he waited, he wondered why things like this happened.

Why do some people live, while others die? Why are some criminals smart enough to catch the law off guard, and why are some law officers just determined to ignore orders when they should be listening?

Tony began his report, writing in excruciating detail everything that happened the previous evening. He spelled out Ziva's refusal to follow protocol, to Tim's foolish decision to follow her lead. Tony had been on the other side of the building with Gibbs, and both had ordered the junior agents to stand down.

McGee stopped, Ziva didn't. Gibbs had let out a muttered curse before motioning to Tony to get to the two on the other side. He ran, but he still wasn't in time to stop Ziva from kicking in the door.

_Shrapnel flew, seemingly before the concussive boom that accompanied the exploding grenade. He watched Ziva fall, and heard Tim scream in agony. He was too late._

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs spoke sharply. He didn't want to scare the kid, but he could see that Tony was spiraling into the abyss of pain that beckoned to all survivors. Tony looked up. "Not your fault, Tony."

"I know, but…"

"Not your fault." Gibbs reemphasized his words. "She made her own choices, and he followed along until it was too late."

"Shoulda trained…"  
"If they shoulda been trained better, that falls on me, not you. Got that?"

"Yeah, Boss." Tony sounded defeated, but he voiced agreement.

Above them, a throat cleared. Leon stood on the catwalk, just as he had every year of his directorship, and every director before him had done.

"Let us observe a moment of silence for the lives lost December 7, 1941."

Every agent stood at their desks, heads bowed as they gave silent honor to those who had given their lives. Thoughts wandered to relatives who had fought in the war, to those lost in more recent years during times of peace. The world had truly changed that day.

A lone trumpeter, somewhere out of sight, began playing taps after several minutes, announcing the end of the silence. Tony took a deep breath, feeling the ache in his chest subside a bit.

Gibbs looked to his second. The younger man would feel the sting of this for a long time. It was a rough thing, but the truth was, that if someone messed up, it was him. And he'd trained his team to the best of his ability. The only thing he could have changed was to make them robots. That wasn't something he was willing to do.

Just like clues had been missed the morning of the Pearl Harbor attack, he'd missed clues that his team was falling apart. He'd missed glaring insubordination issues, and that had cost people their lives. But never again.

It's rumored that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto wrote the words, "I fear all we have done to is awaken a sleeping giant." In some ways, Gibbs felt like his words still rang true. Yes, they woke a giant, and yes, the giant came up fighting.

Gibbs had learned some of his best lessons from Lady Liberty. One of those lessons was that freedom was purchased at a high cost. It was well worth the price paid, and to keep it was just as costly. They had been awoken. And just as the nation had risen up and defended itself then, NCIS would rise on a smaller scale and defeat the enemy who had brought war to their door.


End file.
